alonzo marvin in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture in the 1930's dust bowl spread across america destroying crops and bringing an entire industry to its knees fast forward to today and nations across the globe are dealing with a twenty first century dust bowl so what can be done to prevent all the damage also already people are camped out at stores across america waiting for the call to strike midnight on thursday and black friday to begin the diehard shoppers at wal-mart and be able to get their hands on all the great deals with a wal-mart employee is planning for the biggest shopping day of the year and the

shady wall street practice known as shadow banking played a major role in this country's financial meltdown at the practice is going stronger than ever what kind of regulations and oversight need to be put into place to reel in shadow banking and prevent another financial collapse. you need to know this this past weekend i saw horror want to p.b.s. his new documentary on the dust bowl of the one nine hundred thirty s. ken burns is brilliant look at one of the worst manmade ecological disasters in modern times during the republican no regulations bubble of the one nine hundred twenty s. commodity prices particularly we were built up to the point where thousands of farmers flock to the midwest and use mechanized plows to break open tens of millions of acres of virgin prairie land converted to fields for growing wheat buffalo grass that covered the plain. and the buffalo that both grazed on it and

fertilized it up hold whilst you're in the earth and produced a viable layer of topsoil when the farmers turn this over to exposed to the sun combined of the decade long period of episodic drought it turned to dust that was picked up by the wind and destroyed farms and towns destroyed field and killing livestock and humans alike here's a clip from ken burns the dust bowl describing how the disaster began. to dream like a black wall but tired of destruction the french took the brute who plays the blood out of everything in its place you never really escape it to us you always found its way and that's i think what drove me crazy so much pull up stakes and. put most state boldly took you to the promise that next year would be better. but it took many many next years for things to get better finally the mid one nine hundred thirty scientists figured out how humans and screwed up the environment and f.d.r.

in one hundred thirty five pushed their programs to pay farmers to conserve the soil and use government money to buy back farms from distressed farmers so the land could be returned to the wild world would hold more in one thousand thirty seven at d.r. pushed through the shelter belt a program that would plant trees and other soil holding vegetation in a massive one hundred mile long belt the stretch from the canadian border to texas in one hundred thirty seven f.d.r. put the w.p.a. to work on this is well and between planting trees shelter belt and new ways of plowing they reduce soil erosion by sixty five percent so a disaster the took us two or three decades to create was largely resolved in one decade although the human and environmental toll was awful but this all points to a few to future issues the first is our current problem of global warming. dust bowls are emerging all around the world although with their opposite flooding the coastal areas as

a result of both unsustainable agricultural practices as the world is pushing over seven billion people there were only two billion in the one nine hundred thirty s. and global warming the second problem is the whole variety of problems associate with global warming itself from more powerful storms to melting glaciers in mountainous areas that are now alternately flooding and then withholding water from downstream population centers in the world bank is now weighed in on the topic in a new report titled turn down the heat why a four degrees celsius warmer world must be avoided the world bank warns that the temperature increase will be felt the most along the equator in the mediterranean north africa and the middle east and parts of the united states is temperature increase will lead to scarcity of water and food resources and disruptions in biodiversity in fact that already is which could force mass migrations of people out of affected areas in fact that's already happened over one hundred million people at least rising temperatures will also reduce lead to rising sea levels

which threaten cities in particular located in india mexico and vietnam as well as several african nations again according to world bank report. several small islands around the planet will likely be unable to sustain their populations by twenty one hundred as a result of our rapidly warming planet these threats caused by our relentless pushing a billions of tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere every day may well be the subject of a future ken burns type documentary how humans destroyed the planet in themselves in the twentieth and twenty first centuries that assumes though that the future burn style peaceful have the same appian in the burns as pieced on the dust bowl did if not there will be a special there may not even be t.v. or the civilization that supports so the question we begin working today as hard as f.d.r. did with the dust bowl in the one nine hundred thirty s. to solve the problem of too much carbon in our atmosphere or will it destroy us and

everything we've built with ten thousand years of what we call civilization gentle or some drawings we know she's the director of research at the earth policy institute you're not welcome thank you thank you so much for joining us you know have the world bank paul wolfowitz is organization for goodness sake. or was it one time talking about global warming about about this potential disaster why is corporate america so unwilling to address this issue when you have even you know the world bank talking about it now you stablish once establishment parts of corporate america are certainly worried about climate change if you want to find out what's happening with the global environment with climate change you often have to read the business papers and because they're looking forward at the bottom line and what economists are now telling us is climate change is going to cost us well it costs us a small fraction of our g.d.p. part perhaps if we act soon but if we wait it's going to cost

a lot more and i think businesses are starting to look particularly those in the insurance around i was just a severed a decade ago. back to maybe a little more than that swiss re the reinsurance company that the backstops regular small insurance companies retail insurance companies. you know get ready you know the global warming is coming in this is going to be a significant problem at the time they were being cooed by the by the the shall we say global climate change deniers here in the united states but the oil companies are still funding these think tanks and groups that are out there saying no such thing you still have virtually every republican in congress you still have the guy who had been romney been elected president or had the son of god republican actually. the senator from oklahoma tom coburn who would be it was a coburn or no it was james inhofe would end up the head of the environment committee saying it's a hoax you know i mean they were it's getting harder to though to stand on that

ground i think as we're seeing in this string of disasters one after the other whether it's the summer this drought which was the hottest summer on record. and number of states nationwide an extremely hot summer and then we have of course hurricane sandy and tornadoes left or right the derechos so arms that hit washington d.c. . hurricanes moving in a direction that they just haven't before reaching a size in a low atmospheric pressure that they haven't reached before. it's getting harder and harder to look at any sort of weather event and not see the fingerprints of global warming and climate change and so the ice that these deniers are standing on is getting thinner and thinner pretty soon they will not be or they won't be able to be making those points anymore a metaphor on sunday three thousand people out of the white house protesting the keystone x.l. pipeline the president mentioned global warming in fact he's done so for five times now since he was elected is it conceivable that we're going to see some rapid

action out of this government to to mitigate. this. this problem we can only hope. rapid action is exactly what this country needs i think people protesting outside of the white house are asking for it young people are asking for it corporations are even starting to ask for it when you hear talk of a carbon tax or putting a price on carbon carbon emissions because they want to know how do they make their business systems for the future what is going to be the cost of this so i mean even exxon mobil of all companies is asking for a carbon tax really really and so when the environment until it's considered the same table with exxon mobil and be asking for the same thing you know we talk about a carbon tax. the terms of tax tax restructuring a tax shifting put a tax on carbon lower taxes on payroll or an income so that it could be a neutral revenue neutral tax so that most of americans will end up better off than

they are going to have a carbon tax and use the money to pay for the destruction of global warming i mean help rebuild new jersey well part of the money could go to help restructure part of the money could help go to the technologies that we have today like wind energy and solar energy some of the fastest growing energy sources in this country actually starting from a small base of course but they're moving quickly because because it's the way of the future it's when you invest in a wind turbine or you invest in solar panels you're investing in infrastructure the german model of doing this which is just you know you there's. you took the train across germany and you see nothing but a sea of solar panels on people's houses totally decentralized encouraging individual homeowners to buy their own systems giving them a tax incentive to do it and pay back. all of the large suggestions that i've been hearing of the highly centralized is this because we have you know privatized energy companies in the states and they're looking to control. i think that's part

of the reason that the financing can get complicated when you're looking at the centralized system but i think we're moving both ways in terms of putting solar panels on roofs and that's something that individuals and homeowners can do in terms of erecting a winter been now that's largely going to be a big company and with wind what's made the news is all these sort of nimby problems not my backyard but when you go out to the midwest and parts of the united states the farmlands and the ranching countries those farmers are saying put that in my backyard they want it because they make a lot more money having a winter been on their land they can still graze their cattle or grow their corn but then they're also getting the royalties that having a local source of jobs and energy that stays in the community that jenna thanks so much for being with us thank you very much a great thank you think. now of some more him to other important labor news only in conservative austerity la-la land is the answer rampant crime laying off the entire

police force yet that's exactly what the jersey governor chris christie and local officials in camden new jersey are doing with forty two percent of the residents of the city living below the poverty line camden is one of the poorest and most dangerous cities in the nation fifty nine residents have been murdered this year already shattering a twenty year record for killings to fix this local leaders are disbanding the one hundred forty one year old police department fire and all the unionized cops and replacing them with a new lower paid police force but critics say this has nothing to do with crime and everything to do with busting up unions as eugene o'donnell a criminal justice professor new york told of an imposed this is not a policing strategy this is something more sinister every cop in america should worry about what's happening in camden. he's right public safety is being sacrificed in new jersey thanks to the conservative war on working people but outside of camden there are some glimmers of hope for organized labor in america

that story is coming up after the break. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that many americans call a donor. i'm sorry i'm just a guy who cares an awful lot about you sir are a fool you know what kind of terrorist cells they want if you wish to defeat terrorism. and the christian. can secure the borders. you know for you to distract us from what you and i should care about because they're profit driven industry that sells of sensationalistic garbage he calls it breaking news i'm abbie martin and we're going to break that.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

in screw news over the past month wal-mart workers across america have been striking as part of a build up to a coordinated walkout this friday black friday one of the biggest shopping days of the year according to the group making change at walmart over a thousand store protests are planned across the country it's a little secret the wal-mart employees are mistreated and if they were to strike on friday not only would it be a huge blow to wal-mart's bottom line it would also send a clear message that wal-mart employees are no longer willing to tolerate any more abuse from the world's largest corporation however appeals it appears that wal-mart is doing everything in its power to stop the potential strikes and to ensure that it still rakes in millions of dollars this weekend joining me now to discuss more

about this is david moberg senior editor with in these times magazine david welcome . glad to be here so why are the wal-mart employees planning to walk out on friday and how many do you expect actually will. i think there are plans. for work stoppages that are hundreds of locations and one of the reasons they're walking because they are upset about retaliation against. workers who have spoken out in the past. you know they're also concerned about issues of inadequate pay and adequate hours many of them don't work enough hours in a week even if they got paid better than they do to be able to make a living. but a lot of it is just about the ability to be able to express themselves and to be able to talk to management of about what's going on is it true that somebody who

works at wal-mart cannot live if they buy all their goods from wal-mart that being presumably one of the cheapest place to buy playthings they really are paying poverty wages. well there's a dispute about how much they pay but most. workers get made get paid a little over eight dollars an hour and so you can figure that out yourself compared to what any of us might make if they if they work forty hours a week that would be three hundred twenty. dollars and. most of them working twenty to thirty hours a week and a lot of the complaint is simply about they don't know when they're going to work they call that the last minute and told to come in for a few hours or. get scheduled with out any consideration for. schedules they have about taking care of their kids learn about paying bills tell

me about this group making change at walmart. well making changes wal-mart. basically organization was launched with support from the united and commercial workers which is one of the main unions representing workers in the. retail industry. and it was interested in trying to raise standards in the industry and raise standards for. wal-mart because wal-mart has a dramatic effect not only on its own employees. employees and other competing businesses. and making change it wal-mart about a year ago. began. helping to put together a group called our wal-mart which consists associates is

a company called. who. were concerned about these issues we were just talking about so making change of wal-mart is sort of an intermediary between the union and the wal-mart but it's also a group that's supported by a variety of clergy groups women's rights groups other groups that have an interest in conditions that wal-mart and wal-mart is. wal-mart is follow law said at the department of labor. if i have this right. asserting that you can only mean gauge in some sort of an action like this within thirty days of an election or something more so that a fact. to try to keep a complicated situation simple at the national labor relations board and what they the company is claiming that this is really an attempt to organize a union. and they say that you can't have these continuing actions.

without actually setting. a date for union representation election but the workers themselves have been talking about the issue that they're concerned with is retaliation they're not asking and so far have not asked for. a union to be formed. so there are a lot of questions about whether you can applies in a case like this. since. wal-mart says it's not a union it's not demanding. recognition in order to bargain to contract there's somebody trying to be able to talk to their supervisors and into. that wal-mart to tell them their side of the story remarkably they are trying to stop the protest and. more than anything to do is to discourage people i mean. a lot

of workers are reluctant to lose. everybody looked into so yes we came to the discipline. and. and this is in a city that it's going to try to keep you keep them quiet keep them from showing you know david i got it i did david morgan we're out of time and thank you so much for joining us tonight. my pleasure thank you now for another take on this let's bring in david seely conservative commentator and pro-business advocate david welcome they thanks for having me on tom it's always a pleasure so david why do you hate letting families spend the holidays together well first and foremost what you are saying and what this gentleman was just saying is a gross misrepresentation of the sox you know wal-mart employees what about one point four million people most of them are very happy to be working they have the income that they need coming into their households that we have the dignity of for and i want to tell you something you have a small coterie of these powerless. said

a cool characters who just look at each one of those low wage workers as a potential meal ticket they can't wait they're salivating for them to unionize and get their hands on that i assume you're talking about their lives are better i'm assuming by these parasites you're talking about the five heirs to the wal-mart fortune who know i am in aggregate are the richest person in the world how i how it what about what's wrong again with. the word riches to hurt people on earth pain health care and fair wages to their employees what's wrong with that you know most of those employees are happy at their work and a lot of them i do you know women and minorities and senior citizens how do others have the david productive lives well you know that's a funny thing most people are more. fulfilled when they go out and they do a particular job and they get a check then they would be sitting around watching television sharing hard luck

stories with one another and you have to be very so your imagination and bodies out all have a choice of not going to work and instead what staying at home and just not eating for a week. that's not what i'm saying at all but i don't think they should quite literally bite the hand that feeds them you know a lot of these people are being moved along with this terrible torrents and it's just not right and to penalize their employer for whatever reason they say is just wrong they do have a voice they're first of all not a do not have a voice they most certainly do not have a union do that they have they have no legal right to speak to their employer and their employer has the legal right to basically do anything they want to them at any one time the wal-mart successfully unionized with a store up in canada and you know wal-mart to that store. close that yes that's right yes it's like a rather than saying decent wages and giving people healthcare benefits we're going to say we're not even going to do business i mean this is this is this is borders

on criminal david you know that harper asian and lean people know and they are not tom they're giving opportunity to many people and you have to remember a lot of these people who are working there they don't have your business act human they don't have the advantages that you were perhaps i have ok a lot of these people are working for that paycheck don't deprive them of that so what why not pay them at least that what the minimum wage was in one nine hundred sixty when the minimum wage did not throw you into poverty if we were to inflation adjusted that would be around twelve dollars fifty cents an hour why i pay them a you know eight dollars an hour and keep them part time so you don't have to give them benefits why can't wal-mart function the way i reasoned with you rather you know the way general motors does that with the way that's that's no paradigm to use ok i believe the taxpayers had to bail it out and with some mumbo jumbo there repaying this loan i got to tell ya i'd like to look at those ok the way ford motor company does which didn't get bailed out is paying its workers very good very well

thank you very much i the point here you have here you have wal-mart you know as i said you the five wal-mart areas in aggregate are the richest that's the richest family on earth again even if you were to take all of their money just steal it i mean that's where we're going right and just not give it to all of those workers i'm suggesting we should have gone in short order shouldn't let this work david you know you're advocating you're advocating having the working poor in the united states we're supposed to be the richest nation on earth we're supposed to be a nation and a gala terry nation that cares about our people what's wrong with saying there are certain minimum standards for pay and benefits and if you don't meet those standards are you had to say that in our business a minimum wage because they are not at all i'm saying the minimum wage as of and they have osha and they have all of the. legal rights and protections that you would lead your viewing audience to believe they do not have tom i'm saying that the minimum wage is absurd i'm saying that a corporation that throws off the kind of profit that wal-mart does every year to

be a bar by and large and rich the errors of sam walton and you know not a member not to mention all its executives who are doing drugs i wanted them very loyal and those. there are going to need time for them to start paying a decent wage is they are at the very least is the time for them to say ok fine go ahead and unionize we'll toss on they pay an awful lot more money than our t.v. pays it's an employee's or we pay it i don't pay i don't think this is a big move thing for you to talk to because this was the largest corporation the world yeah well you know aggregate but ok david i think we both made our points david thanks for dropping by thanks. celia. crazy alert that politician is. how do you call people's attention to the

importance of voting in upcoming election and a donkey run for the legislature of course at least that's the approach a group of people in ecuador to around forty ecuadorans senora to go or mr donkey through the streets of gaia keil ecuador and route to a local alecto council office down and high the donkey in his campaign staff tried to enter the electoral offices to register as an official candidate for the ecuadorian legislature unfortunately officials refused to let your borough enter the building even with his formal attire molino one of senior senior burros campaign backers told a local television station that the goal of the unusual political stunt was to draw attention to ecuador's upcoming elections in february over hasn't seen a borough is running on a no horsing around campaign pledge. after the break what lurks in the shadows of wall street a sixty seven trillion dollar moneymaking machine works there that has managed to

escape regulations and scrutiny how do we take this machine out of the shadows and put it into the spotlight like the rest of the financial industry.

you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.